Max Lucado Daily: He Gives Us What We Need
One morning Denalyn was with me in the car. "I'm about to remind you why you married me," I told her as we drew near to the intersection. "See that long line of cars? See that humdrum of humanity? It's not for me…hang on!" I swerved from the six-lane onto the one-lane and shared with my sweetheart my secret expressway to freedom.
"What do you think?" I asked, awaiting her worship.
"I think you broke the law," she responded.
"What?" I asked incredulously.
"You just went the wrong way on a one-way street!" she answered.
I did. She was right. I had missed the "do not enter" sign.
Before coming to Christ, we all had our share of shortcuts. What we consider shortcuts God sees as disasters. He doesn't give laws for our pleasure. He gives them for our protection. He knows what we need!
from Lucado Inspirational Reader
Numbers 31
The Midianite War
1–2 31 God spoke to Moses: “Avenge the People of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you will go to be with your dead ancestors.”
3–4 Moses addressed the people: “Recruit men for a campaign against Midian, to exact God’s vengeance on Midian, a thousand from each tribe of Israel to go to war.”
5–6 A fighting force of a thousand from each tribe of Israel—twelve thousand in all—was recruited. Moses sent them off to war, a thousand from each tribe, and also Phinehas son of Eleazar, who went as priest to the army, in charge of holy vessels and the signaling bugles.
7–12 They attacked Midian, just as God had commanded Moses, and killed every last man. Among the fallen were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. The People of Israel took the Midianite women and children captive and took all their animals and herds and goods as plunder. They burned to the ground all the towns in which Midianites lived and also their tent camps. They looted and plundered everything and everyone—stuff and people and animals. They took it all—captives and booty and plunder—back to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the company of Israel where they were camped on the Plains of Moab, at Jordan-Jericho.
13–18 Moses, Eleazar, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet the returning army outside the camp. Moses was furious with the army officers—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—as they came back from the battlefield: “What’s this! You’ve let these women live! They’re the ones who, under Balaam’s direction, seduced the People of Israel away from God in that mess at Peor, causing the plague that hit God’s people. Finish your job: kill all the boys. Kill every woman who has slept with a man. The younger women who are virgins you can keep alive for yourselves.
19–20 “Now here’s what you are to do: Pitch tents outside the camp. All who have killed anyone or touched a corpse must stay outside the camp for seven days. Purify yourselves and your captives on the third and seventh days. Purify every piece of clothing and every utensil—everything made of leather, goat hair, or wood.”
21–24 Eleazar the priest then spoke to the soldiers who had fought in the battle: “This is the ruling from the Revelation that God gave Moses: Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead—and anything else that can survive fire—must be passed through the fire; then it will be ritually purified. It must also be ritually washed in the Water-of-Cleansing. Further, whatever cannot survive fire must be put through that water. On the seventh day scrub your clothes; you will be ritually clean. Then you can return to camp.”
25–27 God said to Moses, “I want you and Eleazar the priest and the family leaders in the community to count the captives, people and animals. Split the plunder between the soldiers who fought the battle and the rest of the congregation.
28–30 “Then tax the booty that goes to the soldiers at the rate of one life out of five hundred, whether humans, cattle, donkeys, or sheep. It’s a God-tax taken from their half-share to be turned over to Eleazar the priest on behalf of God. Tax the congregation’s half-share at the rate of one life out of fifty, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, or other animals. Give this to the Levites who are in charge of the care of God’s Dwelling.”
31 Moses and Eleazar followed through with what God had commanded Moses.
32–35 The rest of the plunder taken by the army:
675,000 sheep
72,000 cattle
61,000 donkeys
32,000 women who were virgins
36–40 The half-share for those who had fought in the war:
337,500 sheep, with a tax of 675 for God
36,000 cattle, with a tax of 72 for God
30,500 donkeys, with a tax of 61 for God
16,000 people, with a tax of 32 for God
41 Moses turned the tax over to Eleazar the priest as God’s part, following God’s instructions to Moses.
42–46 The other half-share for the Israelite community that Moses set apart from what was given to the men who fought the war was:
337,500 sheep
36,000 cattle
30,500 donkeys
16,000 people
47 From the half-share going to the People of Israel, Moses, just as God had instructed him, picked one out of every fifty persons and animals and gave them to the Levites, who were in charge of maintaining God’s Dwelling.
48–50 The military officers—commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—came to Moses and said, “We have counted the soldiers under our command and not a man is missing. We’ve brought offerings to God from the gold jewelry we got—armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, ornaments—to make atonement for our lives before God.”
51–54 Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from them, all that fine-crafted jewelry. In total, the gold from the commanders of thousands and hundreds that Moses and Eleazar offered as a gift to God weighed about six hundred pounds, all donated by the soldiers who had taken the booty. Moses and Eleazar took the gold from the commanders of thousands and hundreds and brought it to the Tent of Meeting, to serve as a reminder for the People of Israel before God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 01, 2025
by Kirsten Holmberg
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Revelation 7:9-10, 13-17
I looked again. I saw a huge crowd, too huge to count. Everyone was there—all nations and tribes, all races and languages. And they were standing, dressed in white robes and waving palm branches, standing before the Throne and the Lamb and heartily singing:
Salvation to our God on his Throne!
Salvation to the Lamb!
13–14 Just then one of the Elders addressed me: “Who are these dressed in white robes, and where did they come from?” Taken aback, I said, “O Sir, I have no idea—but you must know.”
14–17 Then he told me, “These are those who come from the great tribulation, and they’ve washed their robes, scrubbed them clean in the blood of the Lamb. That’s why they’re standing before God’s Throne. They serve him day and night in his Temple. The One on the Throne will pitch his tent there for them: no more hunger, no more thirst, no more scorching heat. The Lamb on the Throne will shepherd them, will lead them to spring waters of Life. And God will wipe every last tear from their eyes.”
Today's Insights
The Lamb, who is their shepherd (Revelation 7:17), is the theme of the words the diverse crowd is crying out (v. 10). This Shepherd/Lamb will be the center of the throne and will guide His flock to springs of living water. These words echo David’s “Shepherd Song” (Psalm 23) and Jesus’ teaching in John 10 that He’s “the good Shepherd” (vv. 11, 14). As we ponder the wonderful diversity of human beings in heaven, we’re also reminded that the focal point there will be the Lamb and God. The Lamb will guide us, and the Father will dry the very tears from our eyes (Revelation 7:17). The reality of the presence of the Lamb is the true key to what makes heaven so wonderful and what causes the crowd to worship. As we embrace the diversity of God’s children on earth, it’s a reminder that one day we’ll all worship the Lamb together in heaven.
A Great Multitude
There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Revelation 7:9
In 2010, nearly four thousand believers in Jesus gathered in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants from 198 countries were represented at the conference—a gathering considered to be the most representative meeting of the Christian church in the two thousand years since Jesus walked the earth.
There will come a day when a gathering needn’t be “representative” because all believers will be together. John, in a vision from God, describes it this way: “I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb . . . and they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne’ ” (Revelation 7:9-10).
Our local churches may not always reflect the diversity that exists in God’s eternal kingdom. Sometimes that’s the result of factors outside our control—other times we may be drawn to worship with those we perceive to be similar to ourselves culturally, generationally, politically, and economically.
But we honor God when we embrace—and even seek out—the beautiful differences He has endowed to His children. They offer a foretaste of that diverse, heavenly gathering when all those who trust in Jesus’ sacrifice will worship Him together.
Reflect & Pray
How can you better embrace those who are different from you? How might those differences grow your understanding of God?
Thank You, God, for the opportunity to worship You with those who are different from me—both now and in eternity.
For further study, watch Growing the Family Business.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 01, 2025
You Are Not Your Own
Know ye not that…ye are not your own? —1 Corinthians 6:19
There’s no such thing as a private life—a “world within the world”—for those who are brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ’s sufferings. God breaks up the private life of his saints and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for himself on the other. No human being can stand that without being fully identified with Jesus Christ.
God calls his saints into the fellowship of the gospel, and it is for this fellowship that we are sanctified, not for ourselves. In everything that happens, in every circumstance that arises, God is bringing us into fellowship with himself. We must let him have his way. If we don’t, we won’t be of the slightest use in his redemptive work in the world. Instead, we’ll be a hindrance.
The first thing God does with his saints is to get them based on rugged spiritual reality. When we are spiritually real, we don’t care what happens to us individually; we only care that God gets his way for the purpose of his redemption. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreak? Heartbreaks are doorways that God is opening into fellowship with his Son. Most of us collapse at the first sign of heartbreak or pain. We sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose, then turn to the people around us for sympathy. So-called Christian sympathy will soothe us all the way to our deathbeds! God never soothes us when what we need is to be roused; God comes with the grip of the pierced hand of his Son and says, “Arise; shine. Enter into fellowship with me.”
If through a broken heart God can bring his purposes to pass in the world, thank him for breaking your heart.
Jeremiah 24-26; Titus 2
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand.
Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
